Two-year-old Hudson, pictured with parents Jenny and Adam Muir, will be among those to benefit if a cochlear implant centre opens in Townsville. Picture: SCOTT RADFORD-CHISHOLMSource: News Limited

A COCHLEAR implant service could be established in Townsville after the hospital board approved its development in principle.

The news has been welcomed by Townsville patients who currently have to travel to Brisbane to have a cochlear implant installed.

The decision to “approve in principal” the establishment of a Cochlear Implant Service at Townsville Hospital was made during the board’s February meeting, with financial support and sustainability to be addressed at future meetings.

Townsville Hospital and Health Board chairman John Bearne said they had “approved in principle” further research in to the possibility of establishing a cochlear implant service, principally for babies who are born with profound deafness, but also for adults, where appropriate, at The Townsville Hospital.

“We recognise the disruption to families caused by trips to Brisbane and developing a service of this nature will keep families close to home and loved ones,” Mr Bearne said.

“The team is working to determine the sustainability and viability of such a service and will report back to the board.”

Cochlear implants are electronic, surgically implanted devices that allow users to experience sounds by sending electrical signals to the nerve endings in the inner ear.

The hospital’s audiology department has a Childhood Hearing Clinic, which undertakes newborn hearing tests, but children diagnosed with permanent hearing loss are referred to Brisbane for cochlear implants and ongoing follow-up appointments.

The establishment of a cochlear implant service will mean those patients will be able to have the implants fitted and adjusted locally.

Townsville toddler Hudson Muir, 2, was fitted with a bilateral cochlear implant when he was just eight months old.

His mother Jenny Muir, an admin officer at the North Queensland Police Service Academy, travelled weekly, then monthly, to Brisbane for follow-up care. They now fly to Brisbane every three months.

She said the travel time outweighed the one-hour appointment with a specialist in Brisbane, and while some costs were subsidised by the government, costs soon added up.

“We have seen huge improvements in Hudson,” Mrs Muir said. “It was really tough because only one of us could fly down and, when things go wrong, you are on your own.”